Book picks similar to
Swimming with a Dragon by Dawn McMillan


1st-grade
dragons-pirates-fantasy
english-fiction
reading-recovery

A Possible Life: A Novel in Five Parts


Sebastian Faulks - 2012
    Across the yard of a Victorian poorhouse, a man is too ashamed to acknowledge the son he gave away. In a 19th-century French village, an old servant understands - suddenly and with awe - the meaning of the Bible story her master is reading to her. On a summer evening in the Catskills in 1971, a skinny girl steps out of a Chevy with a guitar and with a song that will send shivers through her listeners' skulls. A few years from now, in Italy, a gifted scientist discovers links between time and the human brain and between her lover's novel and his life. Throughout the five masterpieces of fiction that make up A Possible Life, exquisitely drawn and unforgettable characters risk their bodies, hearts and minds in pursuit of the manna of human connection. Between soldier and lover, parent and child, servant and master, and artist and muse, important pleasures and pains are born of love, separations and missed opportunities. These interactions - whether successful or not - also affect the long trajectories of characters' lives. Provocative and profound, Sebastian Faulks's dazzling new novel journeys across continents and centuries not only to entertain with superb old-fashioned storytelling but to show that occasions of understanding between humans are the one thing that defines us - and that those moments, however fluid, are the one thing that endures.

Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus


Tennant Redbank - 2005
    With four-color photographs straight from the movie, this Step 2 reader retells the magical story of the DVD in the simple language that will help Barbie’s little fans Step into Reading on their own.

Mother of Pearl


Maureen Lee - 2005
    Their romantic, passionate marriage was made in heaven - but with the outbreak of war, Barney volunteered to fight, and the couple were separated for five long years. When he returned to Liverpool after VE Day, he wasn't the same person - and neither was Amy.How could things have become so twisted that one day Amy would kill the husband she once so adored? And what happened to their little girl, Pearl, just five years old at the time?In 1971 Amy is released from prison - although her freedom will change the lives of others, not least that of her daughter. But Pearl has her own demons to exorcise in her quest for happiness. And the greatest question she must ask herself is this: can she ever love her mother after what she did?

Dr. Seuss's Circus McGurkus Squirt! (Dr. Seuss Nursery Collection)


Dr. Seuss - 2004
    This Seussian bath book complete with squirter—is sure to bring hoorays and a shout: when the whale comes in and he squirts from his spout!

Love All


Elizabeth Jane Howard - 2008
    The story revolves around a disparate group of people who come together there to establish an arts festival. There is Jack Curtis a self-made millionaire who has bought and refurbished the local stately home, Florence Plover, a garden designer in her sixties whom he has employed and her Anglo-Greek niece, Persephone. There are the Musgrove siblings, Thomas and Mary, whose family originally owned Melton Hall, who run a failing garden nursery nearby and there is Francis Brock, whose sister Celia, Thomas's wife, was tragically killed in a car crash some years previously.This is the story of their intertwining relationships and how they come to love, and not to love each other in different ways and why - a perfect book to curl up and read by the fireside on an autumn afternoon and as satisfying a read as "Brief Encounter" is a film.

The Day I Lost You


Fionnuala Kearney - 2016
    But Anna’s disappearance dredges up some life changing questions: Jess must uncover her daughter’s secret life – and unearth a secret that changes her world irrevocably.The day I lost you was the day I discovered your secret life.The day I lost you was the day you tore our family apart.

little scratch


Rebecca Watson - 2020
    Must she really drink eight glasses of water a day to stay hydrated? Does the word "rape" apply to what happened to her? Why is the etiquette of the women's bathroom so fraught? Does the colleague who keeps offering to make her tea know something? And why can't she stop scratching?Fiercely moving and slyly profound, little scratch is a fearless and defiantly playful look at how our minds function in-- and survive--the darkest moments.

The Sorrows of an American


Siri Hustvedt - 2008
    The Sorrows of an American tells the story of the Davidsen family as brother and sister uncover its secrets and unbandage its wounds in the year following their father’s funeral.Returning to New York from Minnesota, the grieving siblings continue to pursue the mystery behind the note. While Erik’s fascination with his new tenants and emotional vulnerability to his psychiatric patients threaten to overwhelm him, Inga is confronted by a hostile journalist who seems to know a secret connected to her dead husband, a famous novelist. As each new mystery unfolds, Erik begins to inhabit his emotionally hidden father’s history and to glimpse how his impoverished childhood, the Depression, and the war shaped his relationship with his children, while Inga must confront the reality of her husband’s double life.A novel about fathers and children, listening and deafness, recognition and blindness; the pain of speaking and the pain of keeping silent, the ambiguities of memory, loneliness, illness, and recovery. Siri Hustvedt’s exquisitely moving prose reveals one family’s hidden sorrows through an extraordinary mosaic of secrets and stories that reflect the fragmented nature of identity itself.

Hornito: My Lie Life


Mike Albo - 2000
    From a typical suburban childhood to his perpetual search for true love, Albo evokes a poignant, nostalgic past and a vibrant, energetic present. By turns vulnerable and jaded, flamboyant and obsessive, Hornito is full of subversive humor and outrageous irony.

Gol


J.W. Webb - 2015
    Will their greed-driven land heed the warnings… or burn?Lissane Barola’s dreams are fading fast. Unwillingly betrothed to a pompous brute for political reasons, the baron’s daughter knows her power-hungry father would never approve of her love of a commoner. But she’s horrified when he enlists her awful brothers to batter her beloved into a bloody, lifeless pulp.Erun Cade’s soul thrives on poetry and high-court fantasies. Yet mere words are little help to the blacksmith’s son when he’s tortured and left for dead by his sweet flame’s vicious family. Revived by a mystic saddling him with a deadly mission, he longs to be back with the proud woman who holds his heart, but a far more pressing danger looms on the horizon…Desperate to move on and find happiness, Lissane loses hope as it’s ripped into shreds by continued betrayal and death. And after enduring punishing training with an elite battalion, Erun musters but one thought for his home after witnessing an elemental demon’s maelstrom of destruction: If he doesn’t warn them, everybody will die.Can the star-crossed lovers reunite and deliver their realm from utter annihilation?Gol is the breathtaking prequel to the Legends of Ansu fantasy series. If you like twisted webs of passion, epic tapestries, and staggering battles, then you’ll adore J.W. Webb’s thrilling ride into war.

Miss Wyoming


Douglas Coupland - 1999
    hospital, John Johnson is amazed that it was the flu and not an overdose of five different drugs mixed with cognac that nearly killed him. As a producer of high-adrenaline action flicks, he's led a decadent and dangerous life, purchasing his way through every conceivable variant of sex. But each variation seems to take him one notch away from a capacity for love, and while movie-making was once a way for him to create worlds of sensation, it now bores him. After his near-death experience, John decides to walk away from his life.Susan Colgate is an unbankable former tv star and child beauty pageant contender. Forced to marry a heavy metal singer in need of a Green Card after her parents squander her sitcom earnings, she becomes the alpha road rat. But when the band's popularity dwindles, the marriage dissolves. Flying back to Los Angeles in Economy, Susan's plane crashes   and only she survives. As she walks away from the disaster virtually unscathed, Susan, too, decides to disappear.John and Susan are two souls searching for love across the bizarre, celebrity-obsessed landscape of LA, and are driven, almost fatefully, toward each other. Hilarious, fast-paced and ultimately heart-wrenching, Miss Wyoming is about people who, after throwing off their self-made identities, begin the fearful search for a love that exposes all vulnerabilities.

Overcomer


Chris Fabry - 2019
    In this sports novel, award-winning author Chris Fabry pens an inspiring family drama that dares to leave you filled with hope, inspired to dream, and asks the question: What do you allow to define you?Life changes overnight for coach John Harrison when his high school basketball team and state championship dreams are crushed under the weight of unexpected news. When the largest manufacturing plant shuts down and hundreds of families leave their town, John questions how he and his family will face an uncertain future. After reluctantly agreeing to coach cross-country, John and his wife, Amy, meet an aspiring athlete who's pushing her limits on a journey toward discovery. Inspired by the words and prayers of a newfound friend, John becomes the least likely coach helping the least likely runner attempt the impossible in the biggest race of the year.Filled with a powerful mix of faith, a twist of humor, and a ton of heart, Overcomer will resonate with all ages, races and genders.Based on the Overcomer screenplay by Alex and Stephen Kendrick--the creators of highly successful films like War Room, Facing the Giants, Fireproof, and CourageousIncludes Production and Movie PhotosIncludes Discussion Guide

The Magestaff


Cordelia Castel - 2018
     Armed with a magical staff, she must reach the safety of the Anti-Magic Capital’s city walls before her murderous betrothed and his henchmen catch her. But getting there means braving the badlands of the United Kingdom of Seven, a land teeming with trolls, bandits, swindlers and magical foes. If you like damsels who defy distress, you’ll love the Magestaff. Perfect for fans of Xena The Warrior Princess, Brienne of Tarth, and Celaena Sardothien! Previously published as Cendrilla; lengthened and revamped for 2018.

Barbie as the Island Princess


Daisy Alberto - 2007
    When a handsome prince rescues her, Barbie¨ must decide where she fits in best. Illustrated with full-color art from the movie, this Step 2 reader tells the story in the simple language that will help young Barbie¨ fans step into reading on their own.

Even the Dogs


Jon McGregor - 2010
    His friends look on, but they're dead, too, their bodies found in squats and sheds and alleyways across the city. Victims of heroin, they're ghosts in the shadows, a chorus keeping vigil as the hours pass, paying their own particular homage as their friend's body is taken away, examined, investigated, and cremated.All their stories are laid out piece by broken piece through a series of fractured narratives. We meet Robert, the deceased, the only alcoholic in a sprawling group of junkies; Danny, just back from uncomfortable holidays with family, who discovers the body; Laura, Robert's daughter, who stumbles into the drug addict's life when she moves in with her father after years apart; Heather, who has her own home for the first time since she was a teenager; Mike, the Falklands War vet; and all the others. Theirs are stories of lives fallen through the cracks, hopes flaring and dying, love overwhelmed by more immediate needs. These invisible people live in a parallel reality to most of us, out of reach of food and shelter. And in their sudden deaths, it becomes clear, they are treated with more respect than they ever were in their short lives.Intense, exhilarating, and shot through with hope and fury, Even the Dogs is an intimate exploration of life at the edges of society—a deeply humane book littered with love, loss, despair, and a half glimpse of redemption—now reissued with a new introduction by Yiyun Li.